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There is no democracy in Team Anna's agitation: Swami Agnivesh
Published: Sunday, Oct 16, 2011, 18:38 IST
Place: New Delhi | Agency: PTI
Describing Anna Hazare's campaign as 'brahminvaad', activist Swami Agnivesh
Sunday hit out at the Gandhian saying there was "no democracy" in his agitation
and dissenting voices were thrown out of the team.
Agnivesh, who was marginalised by Team Anna as they suspected him to be a
"government mole", also claimed that the RSS stamp was "very much evident" in
the campaign and that he had argued for better representation of Muslims and
Dalits to counter this.
He said many of the crucial decisions like opposing Congress in Hisar elections
and holding referendum in Union Kapil Sibal's constituency were not taken by
core committee and it was like "Anna and Arvind (Kejriwal) were taking all
decisions".
Claiming that he had argued for better representation of Muslims and Dalits in
the anti-corruption, Agnivesh said, "It was brahminvaad. They were not ready to
treat everybody as equal. We did not see Dalits or Muslims in Jantar Mantar or
Ramlila Maidan where Anna sat on fast".
Targeting Hazare, he said, "Anna is very individualistic. He never functions in
a democratic way. It is like 'if you fall in line, then it is okay'."
"None of the big social workers from Maharashtra were part of his campaign,"
Agnivesh told PTI in an interview.
He said he had objected to building a "cult around Anna" in the meetings but no
one listened.
"People used to say we were foot soldiers.Somebody said Anna is 'Doosra
Gandhi', then there was Anna is India and India is Anna. When I pointed out
these, they did not find any fault with it," he said.
Agnivesh, who was in the eye of a controversy after a video footage surfaced in
which he was heard telling someone that Anna agitation should be dealt with
strictly, said there was no democratic way of decision making in Team Anna.
A number of Team Anna members, who attended the September 10-11 Core meeting in
Hazare's village Ralegan Siddhi, said that there no decision was taken to
oppose Congress, he claimed.
http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_there-is-no-democracy-in-team-anna-s-agitation-swami-agnivesh_1599683
